Building Aluminum PC Tech Station

FrozenCPU wanted their PC to be jaw dropping, unique and utilitarian. Cheapskate and I have been brainstorming ideas of a sexy billet Tech Station for a long time. Mark & Bucky were intrigued with the idea. After conference a few calls, I learned they share our love for Sci-Fi, custom cars, and bikes. I made notes before initiating brainstorm session with Cheaps. I purge elements of what I'm envisioning into a funnel, inserted into his mad munky brain. After the Concept is born, the next stage is altering the Concept to host their tasty menu for the best hardware. We suggested the buildf utilize two loops with 480 radiators. Mark loved idea of automating the PC in some manner.

Glad you like it soo far gang! ....we've been wanting to build a tech station from aluminum for awhile, and was very happy when frozencpu approached us. We hope to create smaller one for retail someday...

The employees in Frozen's workshop will have plenty of POWER for any configuration they install, cause we're using EVGA's new SuperNOVA NEX1500 Classified Power Supply in their Tech Station. You can read all of the specs and details about this beast at FrozenCPU

The employees in Frozen's workshop will have plenty of POWER for any configuration they install, cause we're using EVGA's new SuperNOVA NEX1500 Classified Power Supply in their Tech Station. You can read all of the specs and details about this beast at FrozenCPU

Thanks for tuning in and commenting guys!! This weekend we finished the ribs for the top cover. Next step is making the Transparent Blue side windows. Additional spacers are on the way from Cheaps, so we can assemble the top this weekend.

My God, you have no idea how much I covet my OP's mill and raw materials...

Oh, I think we do.

Yes, I want to mill a new housing case for my ancient Thinkpad 390e from aluminum so it's terribly designed hinges have no chance of failing. What?

Also car parts, case parts, and we have this coffee table with brass legs that I'd love to redo from solid bar stock.Lightsaber hilt or 6, gauntlets, redo/fix many of my old toys, doorknobs, and many custom hinges for my woodworking projects.

If you look for used mill, get one with software package, we use Mastercam ver 9 for drawing everything, I think their lowest cost package currently starts at $9,000..

If you need custom parts milled, here are resources I can recommend for helping you create your custom parts. emachineshop is most expensive, but they offer their own proprietary software you can download for free, to draw your own custom parts.

E-MachineShophttp://www.emachineshop.comEmachineshop gives you the ability to make parts using injection molding, milling, turning, laser cutting, waterjet cutting, bending. You can download free, easy-to-use software which they can use to design objects ranging from personal computer chassis and car parts to door knobs in metal, plastic or other materials.

My God, you have no idea how much I covet my OP's mill and raw materials...

Oh, I think we do.

Yes, I want to mill a new housing case for my ancient Thinkpad 390e from aluminum so it's terribly designed hinges have no chance of failing. What?

Also car parts, case parts, and we have this coffee table with brass legs that I'd love to redo from solid bar stock.Lightsaber hilt or 6, gauntlets, redo/fix many of my old toys, doorknobs, and many custom hinges for my woodworking projects.

Yeah. We totally do.

Oh come on 'Streak, in less than 5-years, you'll be able to fab everything you could ever want on your home 3D printer. You can already fab your own phone case. Lappy clam shells should be coming soon.

tru dat ^ ...We had a Makerbot demonstration at our Midwest meetup event. Amazingly affordable tool for what it does, for under $2,000. It would be ideal for us in prototyping new products

Finished the individual parts for the Motherboard I/O. Mounting posts and swing arm, which will hold down the I/O brackets on the GPUs. .... Actuator arm arrived this week, I'll try and get those pics taken and posted soon!

The actuator arrived. Here is all of the details with links from Firgelli. Roboduck informed me the 200N max force lift rating is 45 pounds, so one actuator should lift our cover, but I bought 2nd actuator we can install if needed. The quality is the actuator construction is exceptionally good. The order process and packing of everything was good too! I plan to install the actuator this weekend and will share my results. I'm also documenting the entire build to share on my YouTube Channel.

The Linear Actuator Control Board is a stand-alone closed-loop control board specifically designed for Firgelli "P" series actuators. The LAC greatly simplifies designs by saving the development time, cost, and processor overhead associated with direct motor control. As little as 1 digital or analog output is required for position control. Supported input signals include USB, Voltage, Current, RC Servo, and PWM. On board adjustment of speed, sensitivity, and stroke limits are available. The LAC can be operated as both an interface board, or as a stand alone controller with the addition of an external potentiometer and power supply. Each LAC Board controls 1 linear actuator and will require an external power supply rated for the actuator. The LAC will work with the L12-P, PQ12-P and L16-P. It may also be able to drive other larger actuators that have position feedback.

We're utilizing two Aquacomputer Aqualis 450ml Reservoirs from Frozencpu. (approx. 80 x 80 x 170 mm) These measure 70mm in diameter and made from Borosilicate glass, so they're scratch resistant! There is no color absorption in this glass, so dye colors look more vibrant.

I didn't have time to assemble the cover and install Firgelli this weekend, but did get more of the tiny parts finished. This is the front panel Power switch plate , .25" thick alum will mount over .25" thick Light Blue acrylic and fits 22mm Bulgin switch, 5mm LED. The other two holes are for fasteners

Finished the "Dual Aqualis" Mount plates. Machined from 3/16" aluminum. Cheaps devised a resourceful means for mounting it too. We've Given the Bluray a dual purpose. And some people thought optical drives had become obsolete...lol

super busy day, I took these photos w/o realizing the bottom plate was flipped..lol